Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally / Wieck

Detroit Free Press Business Writer

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Ford will pay CEO Alan Mulally a pre-tax lump-sum after his retirement equal to five times the amount of Fordís contribution to his Ford Retirement Plan and Benefit Equalization Plan, according to a letter the company filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The letter, signed by Felicia Fields, Ford group vice president for human resources, does not state a specific amount to be paid. But it says that under Mulallyís 2006 hiring agreement ďyou will be credited four additional years of service for every year of actual service.Ē His Ford retirement benefits were vested after one year of employment, the letter states.

Mulally came to Ford in 2006 following a brief retirement from Boeing. He is credited with leading the automakerís turnaround. After losing $30.1 billion from 2006 through 2008, Ford has earned $35.2 billion from 2009 through 2012, including net income of $5.67 billion in 2012.

The 67-year-old Kansas native implemented a ďOne FordĒ strategy meant to reduce duplicated efforts and use more common parts designs in Fordís vehicles across most global regions.

While Fordís board of directors promoted Mark Fields from president for the Americas to chief operation officer, Mulally has said he wonít retire until 2015 at the earliest.

The letter from Fields offers more details of Mulallyís original employment agreement when he came to Ford.

ďItís nothing more than a clarification of what the compensation committee thought was overly general language in the original employment,Ē said Ford spokesman Jay Cooney.

Next month Ford will disclose 2012 compensation for its top five executives.

In 2011 Ford paid Mulally $29.5 million in salary, bonus and other incentives. That was an 11% increase from 2010.

Fiat and Fiat Industrial paid Sergio Marchionne, who is also CEO of Chrysler, a combined $22.2 million for 2011.

General Motors CEO Dan Akerson in 2011 received a $1.7-million salary and $7.3 million in stock-based incentives. That will also be his 2012 compensation, which canít increase until the U.S. Treasury sells its last share of GM stock.